Episcopal Leaders Hopeful for Future yet Clear on Deep Divide
NEW YORK - Although Episcopal and Anglican leaders remain divided over homosexuality, Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, viewed the open conversations held this week as "clearly a process at work" and "signs of hope for the future."
"It's a positive sign that these difficult conversations have been taking place in a frank and honest way," said Williams shortly after a statement was issued Wednesday morning at the end of the Episcopal meeting in New York. "...although it hasn't yet come to fruition, the openness and charity in which views are being shared and options discussed are nevertheless signs of hope for the future."
In recent weeks, Williams had dismayed liberals and drew praise from conservatives when he said in an interview featured by the Dutch news agency Nederlands Dagblad that the Anglican Communion welcomes people into the Church, including homosexuals, but conversion must happen, meaning a "conversion of habits, behaviors, ideas, emotion."
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For the most part, participating leaders of the meeting expressed positive views and are hopeful as both sides engaged in candid conversations.
"I think, for the first time, both sides laid down the masks and the pretenses and were as honest with each other as they could possibly be," commented John Lipscomb of Southwest Florida, according to the Episcopal News Service. "And it was received on each side in a spirit of real charity and real concern."
At the same time, all acknowledged the deep divide existent in the church.
While calling the meeting "honest," Bishop Robert Duncan, moderator of the conservative Anglican Communion Network, spoke on behalf of the conservative Episcopal dioceses which still seek a new overseer.
"It became clear that the division in the American church is so great that we are incapable of addressing the divide which has two distinctly different groups both claiming to be the Episcopal Church," he said in a statement. "Our request for Alternative Primatial Oversight still stands."
When speaking with The Christian Post, Duncan said the three-day meeting this week had turned out "in many ways as [they] had sadly anticipated."
"There's an intractable problem and a great crisis facing the Episcopal Church," he said, referring to the "chasm" within the U.S. Anglican arm. The conservative group "holds what [Episcopalians] and Christians have always held," Duncan added, while those on the other side of the homosexual divide are "trying to lead the church to respond to new moral teachings and new theological understandings."
Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori, an advocate of gay relationships, said they are hoping to call another meeting with more participants for a variety of perspectives later this fall to continue to "wrestle with the issues." She added that there is a "general commitment" among the leaders that participated in this week's meeting to attend a subsequent meeting, according to the Episcopal News Service.
Although conversations will continue, House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, who had been in "close contact" with Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop, the Rev. Frank T. Griswold, before the meeting convened and after, pointed to a limiting factor of representation in the sessions.
"Not having clergy and laity represented at this meeting, except in the person of their bishop, may have limited the potential for the healing that is needed at every level of our church," she said. "While there are certainly many people who agree with their bishop on these requests, in each of these dioceses there are also laity and clergy who have no intention of separating themselves from the Episcopal Church."
The church leaders said prayers are continuing.
Still, as conservative leaders have indicated, the conclusion of the homosexual divide is not leaning toward a unified church.
"It's not a picture that looks like it ends in a reunifying church," said Duncan. "But both sides really believe they're the Episcopal Church and yet both sides have reached vastly different conclusions about what that means."
